AllAboutMePrints – Interview: David Millar

Sep 5, 2009 by milly-shaw

David Millard from Southampton University tell us about AllAboutMePrints, a customisable version of Eprints.

What is AllAboutMePrints?AllAboutMePrints, often referred to as MePrints, is a way of changing the way people look at Eprints. It allows people to see information about who submits deposits, and allows those submitting deposits to see how people are interacting with their content. It aims to change the view of Eprints away from archiving and more towards sharing.What problems/issues is AllAboutMePrints tackling?We’re giving people greater control over how they use Eprints. MePrints allows so much opportunity for customising that profiles could even act as homepages.How would you like other software developers and users to get involved in what you are doing?We’ve been working with the Eprints team, and the MePrints framework will be part of the Eprints 3.2 release. We’d really like other developers to get involved by adding widgets to help make it even more customisable for users.What developer communities have you been involved in and if none, why not?Our developers have been to quite a few technology conferences: Dev 8D, Rails camp and a PHP conference in the States, for example. We also keep in touch with the JISC RI community.What is the coolest or most exciting thing in educational software development?

The democratisation of technology is fabulous. It’s great to see technology breaking out of the control of the university. It’s exciting for teachers and students, and challenging for the technologists who have to manasge a diverse ecology of users.